BERLIN – Heading into last weekend, the Stephen Decatur boys lacrosse team sat in a top-flight position in the Bayside Conference.

The Seahawks were 6-0 and had outscored their opponents 110 to 25. That included a narrow 13-12 win at Easton on April 16.

Then came the South River Invitational. Everything fell apart for Decatur offensively and defensively without two starting players as they lost both games.

“We knew going in that we were playing extremely good teams,” head coach Scott Lathroum said. “We wanted to go up there and put on a good showing and play our ball. (We) gave a good effort, but wasn’t our best.”

Lathroum said the guys looked tired, sluggish and drained. So he gave them off practice Monday to regroup, but there is no time to rest with Queen Anne’s County (5-1) today and Kent Island (7-1) on Saturday, with Wicomico at home sandwiched in between on Friday.

The outcomes will certainly play a major role in the outcome of the conference and playoff seeding.

“Against (Bayside) South teams, 70 percent of goals were transition, but that won’t happen against Queen Anne’s, Kent Island and it didn’t happen against Easton,” he said.

Nor did it happen in the South River tournament, Lathroum added. Now the Seahawks must rework the offense to slow things down, control possession and get good looks. When Decatur did that last weekend, Lathroum said the squad did get off quality shots, but they hit the post a lot.

Juniors Corey Gwin, Matt LeCompte, Shane Morris, Jackson Mumford and Jake Lathroum are the main architects of the offense.

Morris acts as the point guard as LeCompte and Gwin have been piling up the goals.

“We just basically need to get back to — we didn’t have all of our people, so we weren’t clicking as well as we normally do,” LeCompte said. “So we have to get the chemistry back and rework on fundamentals.”

Gwin agreed. He said Decatur needs to come out more fired up as well.

Against Queen Anne’s, Gwin said the Seahawks will make a statement.

“I think we are going to come out strong because the last few games, we came out weak and not ready for the team,” he said. “Everyone is usually pumped up and excited.”

LeCompte said coming out strong will be a major factor. Not knowing a lot about the opponents hindered the Seahawks against Easton and the South River games.

So getting that five-goal lead to protect instead of comeback from will be the gameplan for Decatur, LeCompte said.

Ensuring any lead is held will be junior Will Hastings. The leader of the defense, as Lathroum calls him, said the past weekend’s games tested the squad more than all season.

“We had a pretty good look and how we would play against better teams this weekend,” Hastings said. “Missing two starters, not everything was clicking, but we are looking forward and getting a clean hand.”

If the defense can come up with some stops and clear the ball, along with the offense can settle down, Lathroum said it is up to get possession of faceoffs then.

The man in the middle is sophomore Dryden Brous. Against Bayside South squads, Brous was dominating the circle.

But against Easton and in the tournament, Brous did not find the same success against a higher-tier opponent.

“It comes down to possession, and this weekend it was a glaring problem for us,” Lathroum said.

Despite a negative feel after the two losses, Lathroum still has a lot of belief in his squad.

He said Tuesday they will practice hard, and come off the bus fired up today.

“We want to go up there and whip them,” he said. “We want to put it on. … Maybe this was a little learning experience this weekend. It was for me.”